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Aboriginal Art - Including selected works from the Thomas Vroom Collection

RESULTS

Our inaugural Aboriginal Art auction in London achieved a final total of £1,040,625. The top lots of the sale were Jack Karedada's Namarali - The First One and Emily Kame Kngwarreye's Wild Yam 2, which both sold for £100,000. Also performing well were Alec Mingelmanganu's Wanjina (Austral Gothic) (£93,750), Ningura Napurrula's Woman’s Birth Site at the Rockhole Site of Wirrulnga (£77,500), and an early 19th-century broad shield from the lower Murray river (£87,000).

AUCTION DETAILS

We are delighted to present Sotheby's first London sale in the field of Aboriginal Art, showcasing artworks spanning more than 200 years by Indigenous Australians. This landmark auction is the first to be held by a major auction house outside of Australia and is centred around selected works from the Thomas Vroom Collection, one of Europe's largest, most valuable and significant collections.

On long-term loan as the cornerstone of the AAMU, Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Utrecht, the Thomas Vroom Collection includes within it important items from the anthropological collections of Lance Bennett, Kim Akerman and Dr. Joeph Birdsell, and includes early artefacts, figurative carvings, many rare erotic bark paintings and major contemporary canvases by celebrated artists including Rover Thomas and Emily Kngwarreye.